Pompeo ends limit on US contacts with Taiwan

Taipei has hailed a decision that ends ‘decades of discrimination’ but is likely to anger China.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Picture: AFP

The US is ending restrictions governing official contacts with Taiwan, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Sunday AEDT, a move hailed by Taipei as ending “decades of discrimination”.

Mr Pompeo said the “complex internal restrictions” on contacts with Taipei by diplomats, service members and others had been imposed “in an attempt to appease the communist regime in Beijing”. Mr Pompeo added, “No more.”

The declaration may be more symbolic than substantive in effect, but it nonetheless appears certain to anger China, which sees Taiwan as its own territory.

Taiwan’s government welcomed the move. “Decades of discrimination, removed,” tweeted Hsiao Bi-khim, Taiwan’s diplomatic envoy to the US. “A huge day in our bilateral relationship. I will cherish every opportunity.”

Foreign Minister Joseph Wu said he was grateful Mr Pompeo had lifted “restrictions unnecessarily limiting our engagements”.

“The closer partnership between Taiwan and the US is firmly based on our shared values, common interests and unshakeable belief in freedom and democracy,” he said.

It comes in the final weeks of the Trump administration, and at a time of already heightened tensions between Beijing and both Washington and Taipei.

It was not clear what the change means in practice, with Mr Pompeo saying executive branch communications with Taiwan will be handled by the American Institute in Taiwan, which is owned by the US government and serves as the de facto embassy.

Grateful: Taiwan Foreign Minister Joseph Wu. Picture: AFP

The shift comes after a year of mounting US-Chinese tensions.

Mr Trump has sent multiple senior officials to Taipei over the last year as he clashed with China on a host of issues, ranging from its handling of the pandemic to disputes over trade, security and human rights.

Mr Pompeo’s statement also came just two days after China warned the US it would pay a “heavy price” if its ambassador to the UN, Kelly Craft, made good on plans to travel to Taiwan on Wednesday. Beijing opposes any diplomatic recognition of Taiwan and has tried to keep the democratic island isolated on the world stage.

Ms Craft’s scheduled three-day visit will come just a week before Joe Biden’s inauguration as US president, adding to a string of diplomatic headaches facing the incoming administration.

“China strongly urges the United States to stop its crazy provocation, stop creating new difficulties for China-US relations ... and stop going further on the wrong path,” the Chinese mission to the UN said in response to Ms Craft’s trip.

An American statement said Ms Craft’s visit, which Taiwan has officially welcomed, would “reinforce the US government’s strong and ongoing support for Taiwan’s international space”.

The AIT was founded in 1979, when the US extended diplomatic recognition to mainland China under an agreement requiring it to end formal recognition of Taiwan. But Washington remains a staunch ally of Taipei and is bound by congress to sell it weapons for self-defence. It opposes any move to change Taiwan’s status by force.

Military tensions between mainland China and Taiwan have grown sharper in the past year — reaching their worst since the mid-1990s. Chinese jets made a record 380 incursions into Taiwan’s defence zone last year.

Beijing’s animosity has increased dramatically since Tsai Ing-wen won election as Taiwan’s president in 2016; she rejects Beijing’s insistence that the island is part of “one China”.

Mr Pompeo’s move will likely sweep away restrictions on Taiwan officials entering the State Department and US officials going to the official residence of Taiwan’s representative, Bonnie Glaser of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies told The Wall Street Journal.

“The Biden administration will rightly be unhappy that a policy decision like this was made in the final days of the Trump administration,” Ms Glaser said.

“If these restrictions hampered the US from promoting the relationship in a way that serves US national interests, the Trump administration should have done this much earlier.”

An official on the transition team of Mr Biden said he voted for the Taiwan Relations Act as a senator and is committed to the law.

“He will continue to support a peaceful resolution of cross-strait issues consistent with the wishes and best interests of the people of Taiwan,” the official said. “He has long said that American support for Taiwan must remain strong, principled and bipartisan.”

AFP